Melancholy is My Spirit Animal

I was a moody kid. Sensitive and emotional. Still am. Nothing different except now I embrace all of my emotions, even the ones I used to hide from people.

Being a writer, it’s quite ironic that I didn’t know there was a word for how I felt growing up, a word for the ease I felt being “dark” or “serious” or “depressed”, as other people no doubt called me. I was emo before there was a word to bastardize it.

It can get you into some deep holes, there’s no doubt about that, so thanks for the concern, but for me it’s a place to reflect and recharge. And to create! It’s only if I let these emotions control me do I have a problem.

Melancholy is my spirit animal. It charges my art, it breathes life into my mind, it roughs out the edges of this Pollyanna/Sadyanna social media projection party we all participate in here. No matter what the song or film, I always come away from melancholy feeling better.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play “Ice” by Sarah McLaughlin on my acoustic guitar. 🤘

Don’t ever let anyone tell you how to feel or that’s it wrong if you’re not happy. We have so many, many emotions, and there isn’t just good ones and bad ones. They’re all good because they’re all you.